Stars shuffle lineup as games against playoff spot competition loom

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Brad Loper/Staff Photographer

Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14), center Tyler Seguin (91) and defenseman Brenden Dillon (4) reacts to a goal made by Dallas Stars right wing Valeri Nichushkin (43) in the second period of NHL Hockey action against the Philadelphia Flyers at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, December 7, 2013. (Brad Loper/The Dallas Morning News)

ST.
PAUL, Minn. — The ghost of playoff future will make a visit to the Stars this
weekend, and it’s clear the experience has rattled a few chains in the locker
room.

Stars coach Lindy Ruff on Friday broke up Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin in
practice and will probably do the same Saturday against the Minnesota Wild. He
said he must scale back the minutes of defenseman Alex Goligoski and will
probably alter the defense pairs.

It was a busy day, and it underscored just how big these games are with the
Stars fighting through a 1-7-0 slump.

The Wild sits eight points ahead of Dallas in the standings at 57 points and
is holding onto the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. Nashville is
tied with the Stars at 49 points. So when the Stars play at Minnesota on
Saturday, at Nashville on Monday and then back home against Minnesota on
Tuesday, there’s a lot on the line. Win all three games, and the playoff race
looks a lot different. Lose all three, and you might lose all hope.

“We’ve got to hunker down,” defenseman Trevor Daley said. “We have to come
out and play our best.”

Daley and Goligoski have been the Stars’ top pairing during the slump, but
there is a chance the coaches will either break them up or at least reduce their
minutes. Goligoski is minus-8 in the last eight games while averaging 25:52 in
time on ice.

“We’re going to have to back off of that,” Ruff said. “I think he emptied his
tank for us. He’s competed hard, and he’s still competing hard, but I think the
minutes have gone too high.”

Aaron Rome is ready to come back into the lineup, and Sergei Gonchar missed
Friday’s practice with a lower-body injury, so there could be some
shuffling.

Up front, there will be shuffling. Ruff had Benn with Cody Eakin and Ryan
Garbutt. He had Seguin with Erik Cole and Antoine Roussel. Benn and Seguin have
been guilty of loose play and bad turnovers, so Ruff said he wants to see if
they can interact more conservatively with other linemates.

“There’s a fine line there, because they have a little bit of rope to make
the really good offensive plays, and they’ve made a lot of them,” Ruff said.
“But I’m asking them to make better decisions, which for this stretch now we
haven’t made a lot of them.”

Benn said he understands.

“It’s still the turnovers,” he said of 15 giveaways Thursday in a 4-2 loss to
Boston. “We’ve got to keep it simple out there and find a way to change it. It’s
the little details of the game that you have to take care of. If you play your
system better than the other team, you’ll usually win, so we have to find a way
to get back to playing Dallas Stars hockey.”

The problem is that “Dallas Stars hockey” under the new administration is a
fast game where there is a bit of risk involved. That means the Stars have to be
able to find the balance between risk and reward.

“When we’re winning games, we’re playing more in their zone, and right now
we’re playing way too much in our zone,” Goligoski said. “You can only play in
your D zone for so long before something is going to go wrong. We just have to
get back to our game, and get the puck up ice and keep it in the offensive zone.
That’s when we play our best.”

And if that’s the case, there never has been a better time for the Stars to
start playing their best this season than right now.

“Your best opportunity to move up is to play head-to-head with the teams you
need to beat,” Ruff said. “And the key sentence there is, you need to beat
them.”

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